Q. What are the functions of the legs during the attaques?
A. The legs ought to remain adherent to the horse's flanks and in no respect to partake of the movements of the feet.
Q. At what moment ought we to commence the attaques?
A. When the horse supports peaceably a strong pressure of the legs without getting out of hand.
Q. Why does a horse, perfectly in hand, bear the spur without becoming excited, and even without sudden movement?
A. Because the skillful hand of the rider, having prevented all displacings of the head, never lets the forces escape outwards; it concentrates them by fixing them. The equal struggle of the forces, or if you prefer it, their ensemble, sufficiently explains the apparent dullness of the horse in this case.
Q. Is it not to be feared that the horse may become insensible to the legs and lose all that activity necessary for accelerated movements?
A. Although this is the opinion of nearly all the people who talk of this method without understanding it, there is nothing in it. Since all these means serve only to keep the horse in the most perfect equilibrium, promptness of movement ought necessarily to be the result of it, and, consequently, the horse will be disposed to respond to the progressive contact of the legs, when the hand does not oppose it.
Q. How can we judge whether an attaque is regular?
A. When, far from making the horse get out of hand, it makes him come into it.